A shop vandal who smashed two television sets with a metal bar while other customers were browsing has been jailed

A shop vandal who smashed two television sets with a metal bar while other customers were browsing has been jailed.

Tomass Averats targeted a Chatham Currys PC World store in April 2019 and went on to assault two Kent Police officers following his arrest.

The 32-year-old, of no fixed address, admitted two counts of assaulting an emergency worker, two counts of possessing an offensive weapon, possessing a knife in a public place and two counts of criminal damage.

He was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday 15 May 2020 to three years’ imprisonment, which included a 20-month sentence for unrelated offences committed in Bristol.

At around 2.45pm on 2 April 2019, Averats entered the Horsted Retail Park store, in Maidstone Road, and produced a metal bar from his coat while walking in an aisle displaying televisions for sale.

He then began smashing the screens of two televisions before a member of staff managed to restrain him.

Officers arrived on the scene and arrested him on suspicion of criminal damage and during the search they uncovered a kitchen knife in his pocket and a rock with a rope tied around it in his bag.

Whilst in custody Averats also assaulted two police officers who were checking on him in his cell.

Police Sergeant Glen Rickersey, from Medway Local Policing Team, said: ‘Averats’ violent behaviour would have been terrifying for shoppers and shop staff.

‘He also acted with contempt and violence towards those officers who were checking on his welfare when he was in custody.

‘Averats clearly had the intention to commit similar acts from the weapons we discovered in his possession and this result means we have been able to prevent that from happening.’